


Christmas On The Tempest

by The_Anwarrior



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/F, Fluff, One Shot, They’re All Dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 12:15:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13123527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Anwarrior/pseuds/The_Anwarrior
Summary: The Tempest crew comes together as a family to celebrate Christmas.





	Christmas On The Tempest

**Author's Note:**

> I threw this together in the midst of Holiday chaos, but I felt as if it needed to be done. Enjoy!
> 
> Much thanks to jennserr for the shirt idea!

Much to Ryder’s misfortune, Suvi was seemingly the first one awake on the Tempest. The redhead rolled around for several minutes, trying to lull herself back to sleep as it was early, but nothing was working. She was awake and it was staying that way.

She couldn’t stand being awake without anyone to talk to, so she picked out the resting woman beside her to be her victim of the hour. She placed two cold feet on Sara’s bare back to unquestionably wake her up.

“Oh, gosh!” Ryder yelped, arching her back away from Suvi’s feet. She looked at the clock on her nightstand and promised herself she’d remain calm. “It is five o’clock in the morning.” She hissed. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Because I love you,” The scot hummed with a warm smile.

Ryder rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in her pillow. “Nope, that’s not a good enough reason.” She groaned, muffling her words through the pillow.

Suvi playfully hit the mattress beneath her with an open palm. “Sara! It’s Christmas!” She reached her knees and started pushing down on Sara’s back. “Wake uupppp I can't sleep!”

Ryder turned her head in the direction of Suvi. She swallowed the will to cry due to her girlfriends adorable mannerisms. “Are you trying to perform CPR? ‘Cause if you keep on trying to wake me up, you’re gonna’ have to do that.”

“Sara!” Suvi whined with urgency. She was too excited to go back to sleep. In the Anwar household, Christmas was certainly something to be celebrated. Mama Anwar and Gran Anwar always cooked the most delicious of meals for supper, accompanied by ham, Roast beef, dressing, and all sorts of desserts. Papa Anwar would read ‘A Christmas Story’ to the the Anwar children and cousins. It was a joyous occasion for the family, and Suvi only hoped to carry some of that joy with her to Andromeda.

“Gosh, woman!” Sara huffed as she scrambled to sit up. “I’m awake, okay?” Her disgruntled look proved anything but wakefulness, but at least she was making an effort- not that she had much choice.

Suvi paused and tilted up her nose. “What’s that smell?” She puzzled. “Do you smell that?” She looked over to Sara who was sitting up with her eyes closed. She swatted at Sara’s stomach to bring her back, and asked her once more. “Do you smell something?”

Ryder sniffed around while she sat in bed. “Now that you mention it, it smells like someone is cooking.” The Pathfinder thought to herself which one of her crew members was mentally unstable enough to cook something at this hour. She had a feeling that Suvi was going to make her find out, though. Just as she had guessed it, the scot reached for Sara’s hand and guided them to the galley.

“You’re giving that one _way_ too much icing, Liam.” Lexi and Liam stood over the oven, preparing what seemed to be batch number two of gingerbread cookies.

“What are you two doing?” Ryder mumbled out of sight from the two bakers.

“Goddess, Ryder!” Lexi jumped. “Make yourself known next time, please.” The asari calmed herself as Liam began laughing.

“Gingerbread men.” Kosta answered. “Want one? First batch is almost done.” He smiled at the two women in the doorway, finishing off the rest of the icing with his finger.

Suvi gasped at the thought of gingerbread cookies for breakfast. “Sign me up!” She sat down at the galley table and started chatting with the two bakers about holiday traditions.

Ryder made way for the coffee machine as Drack entered. The Krogan sported a high class Santa hat taped to the top two teeth of his armor, and a fake, white beard wrapped around his jawline. Ryder tilted her head back at such a lovely sight and Lexi joined in. Suvi was bright and beaming at the Krogan’s surprising Christmas spirit.

“Santa!” Liam yelled, toddling over to give the Krogan a hug.

“No.” Drack stiffened his arm and shoved Liam away from him.

“Wow, for Santa Claus, you sure are grumpy.” Ryder quipped as she waited for her coffee to brew.

Drack snorted at the Pathfinder’s jokes. “This is PeeBee’s work. Besides, I was told Santa gets free cookies.”

Lexi removed the cookie pan from the oven and set it on the stove. She placed two gingerbread cookies on a plate and served them in front of the Krogan Santa. “That he does, Mr. Clause.” She smiled.  
  
“Thanks, doc.” He bit the head off of a gingerbread man and looked to the asari. “You know exactly what a Santa needs.”

After the five crew mates finished a gingerbread breakfast, Ryder made the rounds to make sure everybody was getting ready for Voeld. It was PeeBee’s idea, of course, to play in the snow on Christmas morning. Ryder was reluctant to the idea up until Suvi told her it sounded like fun. The plans were solidified by the Pathfinder once her conditions were met: they would only stay on Voeld for two hours.

After alerting the crew of their arrival, Sara went back to her room to check on Suvi. The scot was always running late for anything that required getting ready, so Sara thought she could help speed up the process.

Suvi was sporting one of several Andromeda Initiative hoodies that belonged to Sara. “Where did you get this? I’ve never seen a purple AI hoodie.”

Ryder shrugged and stepped closer to the scientist. “I dunno. Perks of being the Pathfinder I guess.” She inched closer to Suvi who was fooling around with the scarf around her neck. “Let me help you with this.” She never took her eyes off Suvi’s as she began folding the scarf around her neck.

Suvi watched the blonde bury her focus in her eyes. It was a mesmerizing stare- the daring kind. The type of glare that was borderline dirty, but not quite. Suvi read the look with tons of weakness swelling within her. She was more than Lucky that the Pathfinder had a significantly romantic side to her. How fortunate it was that she was the one to see it.

Sara finished wrapping the scarf around Suvi’s neck and smiled contently. “Done. Look at that, you’re ready on time for once.” She smirked.

“And you, Pathfinder, have yet to get ready.” She teased her girlfriend with a smile, the same smile that had refused to disappear all day. She was beyond excited to celebrate her first Christmas with Sara and the crew.

The ramp popped open, releasing the bitter winds of winter against the warm faces of the crew. Everyone was decked out to the nines in winter gear and sweaters as they trotted down from the Tempest and into the snow. Ryder and Suvi stepped out hand in hand as Jaal was giving a piggyback ride to PeeBee, and Scott was carrying Cora.

“I have no idea what to do with this stuff,” Drack grumbled.

“You play in it, old man!” Vetra hollered as she threw a snowball to the Krogan, nailing him on the side of the face and knocking off part of his beard.

PeeBee looked over to the damage that was dealt to Drack and grew frustrated. “Vetra! I spent _so_ much time getting that to stick and you ruined it!” She packed up a tight snowball and chucked it at the turian. Before the crew noticed it, they were all participating in a spontaneous snowball fight.

Suvi watched from the sidelines, soaking in the view of the amusement of her new family. It reminded her of her family Christmas. She, her cousins and siblings would all go outside and make fools of themselves while supper was cooking. Of course someone would always end up fighting someone else, but what fun would it be if her brothers never beat up on each other?

Sara snuck behind the scot and wrapped her arms around her and settled her hands in Suvi’s front pockets. “Why aren’t you out there with everyone else?” She searched for answers and placed a cold kiss on Suvi’s neck.

“I’m just enjoying the view,” she chirped with a smile.

The couple looked over their friends as the snowball fight had died down. They watched as Jaal, Liam, Scott and Gil all played football while Kallo and Lexi worked together to make the most anatomically correct snowman the crew had ever witnessed. Vetra and Cora were leaned up against the Tempest sharing war stories, and PeeBee was trying her damnedest to fix Drack’s beard while he was sleeping.

Suvi couldn’t help but smile at the sight. Her biological family was gone, but this is all the family she’d ever need.

Ryder and Suvi joined Vetra and Cora and sat down beside them Suvi decided to play in the snow along with everybody else as Ryder was talking to her friends. She etched out a drawing in the snow with her finger, drawing out the perfect example that came to mind.

The first glance over, Sara noticed her girlfriend drawing something unknown to her. “What is that?” Knowing Suvi, it was surely something related to science.

Suvi looked up from the design she had traced and beamed brightly at Sara. “It’s the serotonin molecule; Serotonin because I’m happy,” She answered smugly. The redhead was ready to deflect some of Sara’s smart aleck comments, as she started to speak.

Ryder looked perplexed as she tried to find the words. What even was serotonin? She didn’t know and didn’t pretend to. All she needed to know what that it _was_ science related and it was interesting to Suvi. “It’s-”

Cora and Vetra sniggered to themselves, leading Sara to nudge them to behave. She swore sometimes she was working a daycare instead of a Pathfinder team.

Lexi slipped over and noticed the drawing. “Ah, serotonin!”

The scientist threw an arm in Lexi’s direction. “And _this_ is why we’re friends!” Suvi noticed the asari handling a camera. “What can I do for you, Doctor?”

“I was wondering if you’d be so kind to take mine and Kallo’s picture with our snowman?” Doctor T’Perro handed the camera over to Suvi and scurried back over to the snowman.

As Suvi pointed the camera, a stray football came flying out of left field and directly onto Suvi’s drawing. “Hey!” The scot hollered over to the mystery man who destroyed her masterpiece.

Liam jogged over to retrieve the ball and surveyed the damage he had done. Before the crisis specialist had a chance to speak, Ryder stood up to defend her partner. “I hope you have plans of apologizing, Kosta.” She barked authoritatively to be sure Liam knew she was serious. Sara was aware that Liam’s demeanor wasn’t always up to par on manners.

“I was- I mean, I am. I mean-” Liam shifted his focus over to Suvi and the destruction he dealt. “I’m sorry, Doc. Honest mistake.” If the two women paid the slightest bit attention to his apology, they could hear his voice was slightly shaken. Sara was a sweetheart, but it was best to stay scarce if she were to be angered.

“It’s fine, thanks Liam.” Suvi accepted and tugged at Ryder’s hand to guide her back down. As Kosta scurried away, the scot gave Sara a talking to about being harsh unnecessarily.

One hour slipped into two and the crew found themselves unwrapping from their layers they packed on for Voeld. The smell of the roast beef and honey baked ham was dancing through the Tempest, alerting the crew that dinner was soon to be served.

Ryder stood up amongst the crew and raised a glass. Upon seeing Sara stand, PeeBee groaned to Gil. “Oh no, please no long speech- just let us eat!”

Sara shifted her eyes at PeeBee and glared. “I heard that.” She glowered and cleared her through to continue. “Anyways. I want to tell each of you how thankful I am to spend my Christmas here with all of you. I know you all gave up your own families and traditions when you came here, so trust me when I tell you I will make my best effort to reflect each of your traditions in any way I can.”

She panned her view along the shining faces of the Tempest crew and felt truly grateful for each of them. “I want to personally thank you all for giving up what you did for me and this cause… and for believing in me. We may have left our families behind, but we gained a new one, right here on the Tempest. It’s a wild, rambunctious and dysfunctional family, but it’s ours and no one will take that away from us. Nobody can separate this family.” She raised her glass once higher and beamed with joy. “To family.”

The group fed off of Sara’s sentiment and enthusiasm while matching each of their glasses together. “To family.”

Wrapping paper, ribbons and bows decorated the floor of the cargo bay as the crew sat around in a circle while exchanging gifts. “I believe it’s time for Ryder and Suvi to open _their_ gifts.” Jaal grinned as he placed a hand on Gil’s shoulder.

Gil wore a crown of silver tinsel around his head by the credit of Vetra. The engineer took part as ‘Christmas King’ ever since while the crew opened their presents. The ‘King’ stood up elegantly and cleared his throat. “I hereby declare Sara of the Ryder clan and Suvi of the Anwar clan to partake in the unwrapping of their gifts.”

As Gil was speaking, Kallo presented the gifts to each of the women in the same fashion as a slave would do. Her friend’s antics made Suvi chuckle as she loved their silliness without bounds. Ryder simply rolled her eyes. This was the ‘dysfunctional’ bit she had mentioned in her speech earlier.

Once the neatly dressed box was placed in her lap, Suvi began to peel at the edges. “No!” Gil hollered. “It is justified that Pathfinder Ryder goes before Doctor Anwar.”

The two women chuckled at Gil’s performance. Sara began ripping at the paper and opened the box that was freshly unwrapped. She tugged at the edges until the top fell off and presented a neatly folded shirt. “What the-” Sara held up the shirt to face her and read it aloud. “I’m the fucking Pathfinder. Seriously?” She, along with the rest of the crew, unfolded out in laughter.

“What do you think?” Liam was sporting his brand new Rofjinn he received from Jaal as he called out and asked for Sara’s opinion.

Sara twisted her face while smiling to form the words she needed to express her thoughts. “Well I’m not wearing it in public, but nice job.” She simpered with a chuckle.

“Onward to Doctor Anwar’s half.” Gil commanded.

The redhead giggled as she gently tore the paper away and opened the box, revealing a shirt strikingly similar to Sara’s. She held it up and read the print aloud. “I’m fucking the Pathfin-” Suvi couldn’t continue reading as her mouth dropped open completely and buried her face in Sara’s shoulder.

The entire crew tumbled over in laughter at Suvi’s reaction- as each of them already knew what the shirt said.

Sara stroked Suvi’s hair, though Ryder couldn’t help but laugh as well. “Way to go, you guys! You embarrassed her!” She tried to sound stern, but the laughing drained her of all authority. “Who’s idea was this?” She investigated the culprit while looking at PeeBee, who was still cracking up.

Gil dropped his ‘King’ act and stood up. “That would be yours truly.” He bowed and soaked in the credit of the gift. “We all knew about it though.”

“She’ll kill you when she eventually gets over this.” Sara warned Gil through uneven snickers.

Gil laughed at Sara’s caution while helping pick up the wrapping paper. “Perhaps, but I feel like it will be worth it.”

A freshly showered Suvi stumbled into the Pathfinder’s quarters with nothing on but a towel. Her eyes locked onto Ryder who was half asleep on the bed with the lights on. “Wake up, Pathfinder. There’s a small matter of business you need to tend to.” The sultry ring of Suvi’s voice roused Sara out of bed in no time.

Ryder reached both of her feet and waltzed over to the redhead. “What business is that, Doctor Anwar?”

The Doctor held up a small mistletoe above each of their heads and smiled.

The blonde pointed her eyes above her to the mistletoe then back at her girlfriend. “I guess that means I have to kiss you, huh?”

“Mhmm.” Suvi purred while nodding her head.

Sara wrapped her arms around Suvi’s waist and locked lips with her. She drove her hands up Suvi’s back and drew away all control from the doctor.

As she pulled away, Suvi threw her eyes up and down the figure of the Pathfinder and cleared her throat. “One more matter of business.”

“Anything.” Ryder offered.

“You have one more present that still needs unwrapping.” Suvi beamed.

Sara threw her eyes around cluelessly, searching for the hidden present. “Oh yeah? Where?”

Doctor Anwar strutted over to Sara and took both of her hands. “Right in front of you.”

 

 


End file.
